Copper slag - the waste of metal production process by smelting - is an an excellent recorder of the ancient geomagnetic field. In the research presented here we have used slag deposits from the last 8th millennia to reconstruct geomagnetic field variations in the Levant (modern days Israel, Jordan and Cyprus), focusing on its intensity (strength). In addition to interesting discoveries regarding the field itself - one of the more enigmatic phenomena in Earth Sciences - our research has resulted in important insights regarding the beginning of metallurgy in this part of the world and new dates for the earliest (and controversial) metallurgical sites.

Sponsored by Archaeological Institute of America, University of Hawaii at Manoa Department of Anthropology and Department of LLEA